Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-16
MORGAN, THE BUCCANEER.
Knighted by Charles III, and
Made Governor of Jamaica.

Tor August, DrleHN nurTdueS Jne ptluCl-
pal events in the career of the boldest
buccaneer of the sixteenth century, as
follows:
The greatest of all buccaneers, he
who stands pre-eminent among them,
and whose name even to this day is a
charm to call up his deeds of daring,
dauntless courage, his truculent
cruelty, and his Unsuitable and unap-
peasable lust for gold, was Captain
Henry Morgan, the bold Welshman,
who brought buccaneering to the
height and flower OF its glory. Hav-
ing sold himself, after the manner OF
the times, for his passage across the
seas, he worked out his time of servi-
tude a. the Barbadoes. AS soon as he
had regained his liberty he
entered upon the trade OF piracy,
wherein he soon reached a
position of considerable prominence.
The first attempt that Captain Hen
ry Morgan ever made against any
town in the Spanish Indies was the
bold descent upon the City of Puerto
Principe, in the Island of Cuba, with
q mere handful of men. 1t was
deed the boldness of which has never
been outdone by any of like nature
not even the famous attack upon
Panama itself. Thence they returned
to their boats in the very face OF the
whole Island of Cuba, aroused and
determined upon their extermination.
Not only did they make good their
escape, but they brought away vast
amount OF plumber, computed at 3OO,-
600 pieces of eight, besides 500 head
OF cattle and many prisoners held Tor
ransom.
But when the division of this wealth
came to be made, 10 there were only
$4,000 pieces of eight to be found.
What had become of the rest no man
could tell but Captain Henry Morgan
himself. Honesty among thieves was
never an axiom with him. Rude, tur-
bulent and dishonest, as Captain
Morgan was, he seems to have had a
wonderful power of persuading the
wild buccaneers under him to submit
everything to his judgment, and to
rely entirely upon his word. In spite
of the vast sum of money that he had
very evidently made away with, re-
cruits poured in upon him until his
band was larger and better equipped
than ever.
TIE next towns to suffer were poor
Maracavbo and Gibraltar, now just
beginning to recover from the desola-
ton wrought by L'Olonoise. Once
more both towns were plundered OF
every bale of merchandise and OF
every plaster, and once more both
were ransomed until everything was
squeezed from the wretched inhabi-
tants. Here affairs were like to have
taken aturn, for when Captain Morgan
came up from Gibraltar he found
three great men = OF = war lying
in in the entrance to the
lake awaiting his coming. Seeing
that he was hemmed in in the narrow
sheet of water, Captain Morgan was
inclined to compromise matters, even
offering to relinquish all the plunder
he had gained if he were allowed to
depart in peace. But no; the Spanish
ydmiral would hear nothing of this.
Having the pirates, as he thought,
securely within'his grasp, he would
relinquish nothing, but would sweep
them from the face of the sea once
and forever.
That was an unlucky determination
for the Spaniards to reach, Tor instead
of paralyzing the pirates with fear, as
he expected it would do, it simply
turned their mad courage into as mad
desperation. A great vessel that they
had taken with the town of Maracay-
bo was converted into tiresh1p,
manned with logs of wood in montera
caps and sailor jackets, and filled with
birthstone, pitch and palm leaves
soaked in oil. Then out of the lake
the pirates sailed to meet the Spanl-
iards, the fireship leading the way
and bearing down directly upon the
Admiral's vessel. At the helm stood
volunteers, the most desperate and
the bravest of all the pirate
gang, and at the ports stood
the logs of wood in montera caps.
So they came up with the Ad-
miral, and grappled with his ship in
spite of the thunder OF all his great
guns, and then the Spaniard saw, all
too late, what his opponent really
was. He tried to swing loose, but
clouds of smoke and almost instantly
a mass of roaring flames enveloped
both vessels, and the Admiral was
lost. The second vessel, not wishing
to wait for the coming of the pirates,
bore down upon the fort, under the
guns of which the cowardly crew sank
her and made the best of their way to
the shore. The third vessel, not hav-
ing an opportunity to escape, was
taken by the pirates without the
slightest resistance, and the passage
from the lake was cleared. So the
buccaneers sailed away, leaving Mara
caybo and Gibraltar prostrate Sec
ond time.
And now Captain Morgan deter
mined to undertake another venture,
the like of which had never been
eoualed in all the annals of buccaneer-
ing. This was nothing less than the
descent upon and the capture OF
Panama, which was, next to Cartha-
sena, perhaps, the most powerful and
the most strongly fortified city in the
West Indies. Down they poured upon
Panama, and out came the Spaniards
to meet them-four hundred horse,
twenty-five hundred foot and two
thousand wild bulls, which had been
herded together to be driven over the
buccaneers, SO that their ranks might
be disordered and broken. The bucca-
neers were only eight hundred strong
the others had either fallen in battle
or had dropped along the dreary path
way through the wilderness; but In
the space Of two hours the Spaniards
were flying madly over the plain,
minus 600, who lay dead or dying be-
hind them. As for the bulls, as MANY
Of them as were shot served as food
there and then for the half famished
pirates, for the buccaneers were never
more at home than in the slaughter
of cattle. Then they marched
toward the city. Three hours
more fighting and they were
in the streets. hoWling, Yelling, plum